Ripensare la formazione degli operatori sanitari per contrastare le diseguaglianze in salute: l'esperienza della Rete Italiana Insegnamento Salute Globale e della Sapienza Università di Roma

Globalisation processes, the growing complexity of European society and the yet largely untackled issue of health inequalities are increasingly questioning the capacity of medical education institutions to prepare health professionals capable of addressing current health challenges. From many sides, a call for a greater focus on the social determinants of health and on the global scenario is revitalising the claim for a transformation of conventional health training. Due to the innovative view and aims of Global Health (GH), training health professionals in it is a crucial issue. Teaching can be seen both as a GH activity (therefore reflecting the tight combination of practice, knowledge and ethics that informs this particular field), and as a tool aimed at contributing to the overall goal of health promotion. All institutions involved in training of health professionals, at both under and postgraduate level, should be aware of their responsibility and of the key role they are called to play. With the aim of improving knowledge, attitude and practices of health professionals Public healthacademics have followed, as well as NGOs, leading in 2009 to the creation of the Italian Network for Globalisation processes. The main objective of RIISG is to improve population health and to reduce health inequalities through improving knowledge, attitude and practices of health professionals. To accomplish this, RIISG aims to foster public and academic debate on GH issues, promote GH teaching at the academic and professional level to fill the gap of present medical curriculum, training professionals to become ethically aware of the commitment needed to improve individual and community health and encourage the dialogue among different disciplines and stakeholders.

Il dibattito nazionale e internazionale circa l’opportunità di un cambiamento del percorso formativo degli operatori della salute è sempre più attuale. Tale riflessione nasce dalla consapevolezza che i problemi socio-sanitari che le comunità stanno attualmente affrontando a livello globale richiedono lo sviluppo di competenze che gli attuali percorsi formativi stentano a fornire o forniscono solo in parte. Proporre quindi esperienze di formazione sperimentali e alternative a quelle esistenti è oggi uno degli interventi di sanità pubblica prioritari per affrontare le sfide che il mondo attuale ci pone. L’approccio della Salute Globale viene descritto come “nuova” proposta formativa per gli operatori della salute e vengono presentati alcuni tentativi di implementazione all’interno dei percorsi di studi, soprattutto di quello in medicina, a livello nazionale e locale con la descrizione dell’esperienza della Sapienza Università di Roma.